Life

Celebrating the Viking Spirit in Norway

Haugesund, a beautiful city on the North Sea, is searching for champions on Sunday at the second edition of IRONMAN 70.3 Norway.

by Volker Boch

"Inhale the Viking spirit" goes the slogan for this event, which offers a challenging, fast and beautiful course that has attracted both strong men's and women's fields. Based on the calibre of the competition, we’re expecting an exciting finish at the harbor in Haugesund.

Ospaly’s challenge

Filip Ospaly is back to defend the title he won last year when he rode away from Danish Olympian and IRONMAN champion, Rasmus Henning. This year Ospaly faces a much deeper field that includes TJ Tollakson (USA), the British trio of Mark Threlfall, Tom Lowe and Ritchie Nicholls, Germany’s Horst Reichel and two-time Olympian Brad Kahlefeldt from Australia. The accomplishments of this talented field are impressive: Kahlefeldt enjoyed a successful ITU career with several wins thanks to his impressive running talent and has made a strong move to half-distance racing with two wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Busselton and Cairns this year. Reichel took this year’s IRONMAN 70.3 Italy title, while Nicholls took the win in a very competitive race at IRONMAN 70.3 UK three weeks ago.

Hütthaler chases a third 70.3 win

Defending champion and IRONMAN France winner Mary Beth Ellis (USA) was forced to withdraw from the race due to an injury she sustained in a crash on the bike in Nice. That leaves Austria’s Lisa Hütthaler as the early favorite—she’s fresh off wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Mallorca and St. Pölten this season. Last year’s runner-up, Michelle Vesterby, won IRONMAN Lanzarote in 2012 and finished second in Los Cabos earlier this year. She’s joined by another strong Dane who also has a few IRONMAN titles under her belt, Lisbeth Kristenson. Norway’s Mette Moe would dearly love to win on home turf, while you can never count Scotland’s Bella Bayliss out of contention with her dozen IRONMAN titles. Rounding out the list of favorites is another Scotswoman, Catriona Morrison, who made an impressive comeback from double Achilles surgery with a win in St. Croix at the beginning of May.

Visit the IRONMAN 70.3 Norway event page for more information about the course, professional ranking points, prize purse and age group qualifying slots. Join the conversation on Twitter using #IM703Norway, and check back here after the race for a post-race recap.